The Piano
by Aello-ello
Summary: A short moment in which Pepper finds out why Tony keeps the piano, and the discovery brings them closer together. Tony/Pepper


Pepper paused in the doorway as an entrancing melody drifted down the hall. The sound of a piano filled her senses, and she felt for a moment that she could be in a movie of her own life, and suddenly allowed to hear the soundtrack. Amused by the thought of being a character in a story, she wondered if she would be the hero, the strong powerful woman who saved the day, or maybe the worried girlfriend Tony had once told her he longed for. Would she'd give her life bravely to save the world, or would Tony appear and rescue her just in time?

Pushing away the ridiculous thoughts of Tony as a knight in shining armour she began to move forward to investigate the music. Stepping into the main room she saw in profile, Tony seated at the piano, his hands moving with fluid ease over the polished keys, drawing his melody from its depths. It had to be his own work, she concluded. The confident, slow strength of the piece and the precision of the higher flourishes was addictive, and within the melody she could catch glimpses of other songs, classical to modern, even a little of a song that had been on the radio in the office that morning. With the sun setting behind him, turning him into a silhouette, Pepper decided that this soundtrack was for a film about him instead, and this would be its dramatic Spielberg moment.

"You're staring."

He had stopped playing abruptly and turned his head to look at her, while the rest of his body remained towards the piano, hands still poised over the notes he had intended to come next.

"Well, I was just in the hallway there and- "

"Un-hu," he spoke over her, much to her annoyance.

She had to say something in response to the smug look her was giving her, "You never play that thing so I came to see if it had gotten so bored it decided to play itself."

"You're aware that doesn't make sense, right?"

She was in fact aware of that, she conceded it wasn't one of her best comebacks, but he had flustered her somehow. The image of him poised and graceful, creating music instead of machines, had thrown her off balance. Collecting herself, she walked over to the piano.

"I didn't know you could actually play, I've worked with you for years and I've never once heard it."

"I usually play at night," he responded dismissively. "I don't play other people's music, only my own, or at least my own versions. Mostly it's just whatever my hands decide to play, and usually what they come up with is the sort of thing that doesn't sit well alongside my normal music tastes. I couldn't have that hard-earned reputation ruined."

"Who would have thought?" Pepper commented, drawing closer to the piano, "Tony Stark has a soft side…"

"Watch it, Miss Potts." He bantered back in a mock serious tone.

She laughed quietly before a question occurred to her, "If you usually only play at night what are you doing playing it now at," she whipped out her phone to check the time, "7:23?"

Tony didn't reply, instead, shifting his attention back to the keys he began to punch out a much more upbeat melody, with a smirk playing around his lips. Determined not to rise to this, Pepper began to walk away.

"Music is like engineering, Potts."

She hid a satisfied smile as he stopped playing again to talk to her, she had known he wouldn't be content to let her walk away without giving him some expression of how impressed she was, to stoke the flames of his ego. Turning around, she listened as he continued his claim about the nature of music.

"Like an engine, it has to have just the right parts to make it work, but more than that, each one has to be specifically selected and timed so that they all work precisely together to get the perfect result, so it can complete the function it's been created to do, to emulate whatever emotion the song is about."

Pepper was still thinking over this analogy, searching for its limitations so that she could prove him wrong when he spoke again,

"Come over here, and I'll show you."

She raised her eyebrows at the demand.

"Don't be like that, Potts, it doesn't suit you, now come on."

Unable to think of an objection she clipped over to him and watched as he shuffled along the piano bench to make room for her. Gingerly she sat next to him, her left leg pressed against his right, the air around them suddenly crackling with the electricity that only appeared when they got too close to one another.

"Put your thumb on this key," Tony instructed in a low, quiet voice, demonstrating with his own hand, "and then spread the rest of your hand across, one finger on each white key, like so."

She copied exactly as he had done, and did the same for the other hand. She turned to look at him to see what he would do next, and found his face was much closer to her own than she had expected. Willing her heart rate to slow, she looked back at her hands on the piano, only to emit a slight squeak as Tony's hands settled on top, a finger on each of hers.

"Tony, what are you-

"Just wait, Potts." He interrupted.

He carefully pressed his index finger down on top of hers, forcing hers down as well and creating a note from the piano. Understanding now, Pepper waited until he pressed another finger, and then another, so that gradually she found she was repeating a short phrase. It was soft and beautiful, nothing like either of the pieces he had played before, and as it looped around to the beginning for the fourth time she found she was anticipating where the next note was before he instructed her to play it. They continued to play this loop through several more times, until suddenly, in the middle of the phrase, Tony lifted his hands away. She stopped just as suddenly, and looked at him, confused once again.

"You've got it, Pepper, just keep playing."

She started again haltingly, trying her best to play it with the smoothness that Tony had through her. Just as she was about to start the phrase again Tony played a much lower chord that fitted her little tune perfectly. As she continued to play through her music he added to it with his own hands this time, deep and strong chords like he had been playing before, but not in such a way that overpowered hers, rather they made hers sound better. The two sounded like one.

Pepper lost track of time, and as the setting sun shone through the enormous windows of the tower, they played on, Tony continually reinventing and she continuing her own constant phrase through it. Only when the sun had almost completely set did they stop, Tony took his hands from the keys and looked at her with such intensity she had to hold her breath. When he spoke it was barely above a whisper.

"Do you get it now?"

Pepper nodded, watching his eyes dart down to her lips and back to meet her own again, this time full of intention. She felt her head move slightly towards him without her permission.

"Sir, Mr Rhodes is at the front door."

Jarvis' polite tone snapped the moment like a twig, and Tony jumped up from the piano stool. He cleared his throat loudly and averted his gaze. Opening and closing his mouth a few times, reaching for the right words, but for one of the few times in his life seemingly coming up with nothing. Eventually he ducked his head slightly at her and ran off to open the door, apparently forgetting Jarvis was fully capable of that.

Pepper stayed on the piano stool, smiling at the back of his head as he ran, and the melody they had made together echoed in her head.


End file.
